Saturday, October 10, 2015

Staunton, October 10 – Moscow is quite
correct to believe that “it is better to destroy terrorists abroad before they
return home,” Vladislav Maltsev says; but the problem is that some of the
people supporting ISIS and other anti-Asad groups in Syria financially are already
to be found within Russia’s Muslim community, most of whose members are Sunnis.

In a commentary for the current
issue of “NG-Religii,” Maltsev who serves as a commentator for that
publication, says that radical groups consist not just of those who carry out
terrorist acts but also those who create an environment in which the former can
function and provide money for them (ng.ru/ng_religii/2015-10-07/2_siria.html).

That is something the Russian
authorities must recognize if they are going to win out in what he calls “the
internal front of operations in Syria.”

Often those who support terrorists
the most effectively are those whose propaganda contains not a word about
terrorism, he says. Instead, they talk about “’the tyrant Asad who has killed Muslims”
and about the need to provide assistance to his “’victims.’”Those who hear these things presented in this
way are often prepared to send money or volunteer.

Most
of this anti-Asad propaganda, he continues, is distributed via the Internet and
especially in social networks, including posts by a Salafite preacher who came
from Turkey to Daghestan and then fled back there after officials came to
suspect him as being behind the 2012 murder of Sheikh Said-Afandi Chirkeyskiy.

Moreover,
Maltsev says, “one must not fail to take note of a number of Russian-language
sites which have been conducting an active information campaign about the
supposed ‘oppression of Muslims’ of Russia by the authorities.” They often
extend that to condemning Asad and other Shiite leaders.

“In
a number of cases, the exposure of ‘the bloody tyrant Asad’” is provided by the
leaders of entirely “legal Islamic communities.”That occurred in Voronezh where several years
ago a Muslim leader from Syria came and called for jihad against oppressive
regimes like those of Asad (ng.ru/style/2015-07-15/16_jihad.html).

Maltsev adds that “there have been
cases when the leaders of Islamic communities [in the Russian Federation] have
turned out to be members of terrorist organizations.” Moreover, “one of the Moscow
‘Islamic activists, a year ago publicly condemned Russian actions in Syria by
suggesting that ‘the government and force structures have declared war on
Muslims.’”

According to the
NG-Religii commentator, this activist added that “those supporting Asad ‘are
becoming accomplices of his crimes,’” saying that “Muslims should not forget
this.”